Kanda stared for a good while until his brain finally delved into the right memories.
"Oh, you again? What the hell are you doing here?" He asked, turning his attention solely on the redhead, completely ignoring the inn keeper.
Just what was the rabbit doing here? He suddenly had a bad feeling about his mission. He had a very nasty tendency to mess up his plans whenever he showed up and Kanda started to get the feeling that their meetings were anything but coincidental.
But then again, maybe he was just being paranoid.
"Long time, no see to you too, Yuu, and same reason as you, probably." He smiled false innocence. "Here on a job. There's always so much work to be done-" Dishonest work, in both of their cases. "-with such busy festivities as tomorrow, after all. Lots of people needing to be taken care of. You know how it is."
"I´ll give you one warning today because I feel generous and I want to rest. Do. Not. Call me that!" He snapped back but less fiercely than Lavi would have expected. "And of course I know how it is. I only hope you won´t interfere with my business this time."
He still remembered his perfectly planned murder turning into chaos and ashes and a night spent hiding under the stairs in a stinky cellar.
"And what´s up with that room?!" He growled at the inn keeper who jumped in surprise, not expecting the conversation turning towards him that abruptly.
Lavi held his hands up in placation, all the while having no plans of actually complying with such demands
"You're still mad about that? It was one time! ONE! Maybe if you were just a little more patient and had waited all of twenty minutes, like I told you, it wouldn't have been such trouble!" But nooooo, of course not. Divines forbid anyone tell Kanda to do anything and expect him to actually do it. He just had to be walking, living, breathing defiance incarnate.
"U-um, yes, we have a room available, however..." the man paused to glance between them. "We only have the one." When he received a stare from both pairs of eyes, he quickly added, "B-but that's still very fortunate, that we have any at all right now, with how many people will be in Solitude for the celebration tomorrow. Unfortunately it's the best I can offer."
Kanda wanted to yell so loud and so much and yearned to repaint the walls in red, but he was way too tired and aching from the bumpy ride to do anything besides glaring at the man with all the remaining energy he had and then glaring at the redhead at his side.
Taking out the gold coins out of his pouch, he slapped them on the table and spoke.
"One night, a bottle of ale and proper dinner," he pointed his finger at Lavi, "and I´m keeping the bed." He finished and headed towards the stairs. "Going to show me our room or shall I chose myself?!"
"Hey, I paid first," Lavi returned without missing a beat, trailing behind Kanda, while the innkeeper was a little more tentative, seeming worried that a fight might break out between the two and not wanting to get caught between them. "So I have full rights to it."
Maybe Kanda was tired from traveling but so was he! He doubted that the guy had roughed it through the open wilds or gone skidding down a cliff side sprinting away from a frost troll, he deserved a bed too, damn it!
So, a dinner, two fights, a broken table, a cracked shelf and a threat of being manhandled out of the city later; they decided to share the bed for the sake of their profits.
They were awkwardly cramped in the small bed, trying to limit the touching strictly to their backs only. Kanda sighed as he glared daggers at the wall, his arms crossed on his chest with one hand ready to draw the blade from the hidden pocket on his coat.
He really hoped Lavi would keep his mouth shut and let him sleep.
Unfortunately, it wasn't to be. Hoping for Lavi to keep his mouth shut was like hoping it wouldn't snow in the Jarrol mountains.
"So, who's the unlucky s.o.b. this time?" he questioned curiously, now that there were no unwanted ears that might overhear the true nature of their trades. He could definitely say he was probably lamenting sharing a room a lot less than Kanda was, since he didn't mind contact nearly as much.
Kanda rolled his eyes, sighing. "You want to know so you can ruin everything like the last time?"
"Of course not." Lavi put on his best offended voice. "I'm curious, that's all."
Kanda sighed again, contemplating about pros and cons of telling the redhead.
"The court mage. I received a contract a week ago." He paused, shuffling around to turn his head so he could glare at Lavi at least from the corner of his eye. "If you screw my job up, I'll be taking your head and money instead!" He warned, hoping that he hasn't doomed himself to another three weeks of miserable jobs and minimum sleep by telling him.
Lavi glanced over his shoulder at the same moment as Kanda did hearing who his target was, staring maybe a few seconds too long with eye only a hint too wide.
How bad would it be if he said he'd been given the same mark? Probably better not to say anything. Better to just turn back around and pretend like it didn't ring any bells.
"Oh, hehe, well good luck!"
Kanda sensed the man sudden tension. Something was definitely off. He frowned even more, still not moving from the uncomfortable position he lay in even though his neck was beginning to ache.
"What is it?" He asked suspiciously.
"Oh, nothing, nothing," Lavi dismissed quickly, keeping his back turned. He could still feel Kanda's eyes boring into him like coals despite that he was looking elsewhere, adding a little more tentatively, "I~'m just going to have to make sure I finish up my job before you get to yours."
Kanda gaped for a second.
"Oh hell no!" He sat up, almost knocking Lavi off the bed. "You are going to mess up my job again! Why are you here, spit it out!"
Yep, and there it was. This is why he'd been trying to keep it on the down-low.
"I already told you - to do a job. Same as you. It ain't like I came here on vacation or anything." Still making it a point not to look directly at the other man.
If looks could kill, Lavi would be dead by now.
"I swear to the divines if you don't spit it out in five seconds I'm gonna throw you out of that window."
"Oh, y'know... thieves business," Lavi hummed, knowing he was edging dangerously close to having Kanda follow through on his threat. "Taking things that may or may not be on the court mage's persons..." he trailed off deliberately. "Before you can get every guard in all of Haafingar on alert with your own business."
"In his possesion...?" Now that he thought about it maybe there was a chance that he won't mess up.
If he killed the mage, he could leave Lavi snoop around while he would be on his merry way home before the redhead could have a chance to fuck things up. That sounded like a plan.
"What a coincidence," he hummed, "and what should that something be? I could ask him if he has it before I kill him." Kanda added sarcastically, his mind already counting all the money he could make if he found the item first. After all, Lavi never goes for cheap things.
"Hmmm, now wouldn't Yuu like to know?" Lavi hummed coyly, lacing his fingers and languidly cat-stretched out across the bed, a smirk playing at his lips. He knew his trade better than to possibly give up his scores. Trust was not a word in a thieves' vocabulary when it came to high-price rewards. "Maybe I've forgotten what it was already." He was really only toying at this point and doing nothing to even attempt hiding as much.
Kanda pushed the redhead off the bed with a swift kick to his side, sending him sprawling onto the floor.
"You little shit, call me that one more time and I'll give you a chance to learn how to fly!"
That little asshole has got some nerves! Kanda hmphed and laid back down, turning his glare at the wall again.
"It doesn't matter anyway. Just don't screw up until I have what I've come here for."
"Hey-!" Lavi yelped, just before having an undignified meeting with the floor, casting a dirty look of his own over his shoulder at the now-solitary occupant of the bed.
He blew out a huff and didn't even humor a reply. He considered throwing himself onto the bed and on top of Kanda to boot, just to piss him off. If Kanda wanted to play the asshole game, oh, he could play.
But he had a better idea for revenge in mind.
Pissing off the raven-haired asshole was one thing. Getting under his skin by making him extremely squeamish was another, entirely more effective matter altogether, the redhead smirking and sliding back into bed next to him and encircling him in a cuddly embrace, all the while simultaneously squeezing his arms tightly to his side. Let's just see him get out of that unflustered.
"C'mon Yuu~ Don't be like that!"
"Wh-GET OFF!" Kanda half-yelled, half-growled as he squirmed in Lavi´s dead-locked embrace, only to no avail. He tried overpowering the redhead by trying to wiggle his arms out but that also lead to nothing but another bout of his own frustration.
It was as just as impossible as trying to mine ebony ores with bare hands.
"I said-" Kanda growled, propping his feet against the wall he was facing, "GET OFF!" He pushed, throwing both of them off the bed which resulted in him landing on the top of the damn thief, successfully squashing him beneath him.
Lavi laughed up until the point Kanda landed on him, letting out a whoosh of air knocked from his lungs. There was some other shouted complaint that wasn't Kanda's, but he ignored it. He didn't relent as Kanda probably first hoped, rolling over and leaning his head against Kanda's shoulder once he had him pinned on the bottom and humming.
"Maybe next time you'll think twice about kicking me out of a bed I paid fair an' square for!"
He let Kanda struggle and swear for a few moments more before letting him go, only to rest an elbow between his shoulder blades instead, propping his chin on palm, finally deciding that perhaps he'd indulge the man's earlier question after all.
"A dragon."
Kanda reached for his sword, his hand lashing like a pissed off snake and he was ready to draw and cut the redhead´s neck, but what the men said made him pause.
"A dragon?" He cocked a brow as he looked over his shoulder.
Elbowing Lavi´s left side, he rolled over, sitting up. "Here? Are you dumb?"
"That's what I said," Lavi nodded, sitting up properly and smiling. "He's carrying or got some dragon-something-or-other on him. Worth a lot. Honestly, did you think I meant a real dragon?" Of course he wasn't talking about actual dragons, just expensive items named after them. He was an opportunist, not an idiot!
Just to make absolutely certain, he jabbed a finger meaningfully into Kanda's collarbone.
"And if you try to make off with my job, I'll make certain you botch yours. Fair warning."
Kanda gaped at him for a good while and then stood up wordlessly and lied down on the bed again. "You can search the corpse after I´m done with him." He said finally. "Now sleep, we´re gonna need the rest for today." In case something gets screwed up, was left unsaid.
Partially because they both knew that it was a high possibility.
"Well I was planning on it," Lavi returned lightly, standing and dusting himself off before climbing back onto his half of the bed, making himself comfortable facing elsewhere. "Before someone so rudely kicked me out of bed."
